BICS was a BLAST -- ON TO: Phillipsburg NJ Comic Con!... My alma-mater!....

 The Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase 25' was an absolute blast. I had the pleasure of meeting many young creators who were passionately behind their projects. The atmosphere was rich in diversity, as expected with the city of New York. I'm still pinching myself of how I currently live in NYC -- really never saw myself here... but here I am and I'm loving it. The culture and the people are inspiring.

It was a true pleasure to talk to people who were aware and not aware of my work -- Some convention goers had many memories of Wildwood, NJ - which, was a pleasure to take in and understand their stories. This is what makes non-fiction so fun. There's a connection much bigger than any graphic novel I can make... yet, the graphic novel is like a conduit to that memory place.

Doing shows like BICS are what makes me dive further into that material -- getting to talk with people and hear their connections to the found media I'm reintroducing is... infectious.

Another showcase coming up, is a return to my alma-mater for their 10th anniversary comic con - Phillipsburg Comic Con!...

Phillispburg Comic Con is operated by PHS's comic club, which, didn't exist when I was there at school. I graduated in 2003... and back then, there wasn't many into cartooning... and even fewer who knew what self-publishing was. 

I'm really excited to talk with the students who might be aspiring to be a professional - providing advice that I wish I would've gotten when I was there... though my education from my art teachers was more than adequate. They even took the time to support me on making my art portfolio for college... a move I didn't think I was going to make until my senior year. From there, of course, I attended Rowan University, studied under the great Nancy Ohanian and I was on my way.

They say in the "comics industry" that no one cartoonist gets through the doorway the same way. I like to think the doorway I had found was one that certainly took patience, and certainly my own degree of perseverance. I really knew what I wanted to be all those years ago, and I'm very fortunate I had that personal vision I'm still fortunate to embark upon. 

Here's to returning to the east coast and attending shows that drive me further into the direction I'm going... Non-fiction, found media, REAL stories.

 See you there! 

First east coast table vending in 16 years... BICS - The Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase

Happy 2025!... I'm excited to share that for the first time in 16 years, I'll be tabling as an exhibitor on the east coast since the Small Press Expo in Bethesda MD, in 2009!...

The Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase is a two-day event held by St. Marks Comics, showcasing the independent creators of comics within the surrounding NYC area.

I'm excited, as I'm new to New York City and it's certainly a bit of a "returning home" show, as I carry old memories of St. Marks comics, being a young reader and stepping down into the great East Village comic shop. It was once one of those shops that all they really had or carried were comics... and even back then, that was a rarity. Another shop that comes to mind that I visited when I lived in New Jersey, was Frankenstein Comics -- another comic shop that ONLY had comics. I'm happy to find that they're still in business in Woodbury, NJ... and I hope the smell of comics hits each customer like it did for me when I would walk into their shop. 

I'm looking forward to BICS, as I'm eager to meet fellow creators and readers here in the city... Los Angeles had a comics scene that I made my own way of being a part of within the decade+ years I was living there... but a lot of the cartoonists I met there had been primarily animators and not-so-much into creating comics or pushing the medium.

BICS excites me because it proves that there IS a fanbase for readers who don't want the mainstream, who have never read the mainstream titles and are still committed to supporting independent creators -- frankly, the reader I became before producing my own works.

I hope you'll take the time to catch me and other creators come April!.. It's going to be quite an event -- see you there with every book I have available in print!